plasmapheresis

How MDA-supported research to counteract a complement protein and rev up regulatory T cells may improve MG treatment

posted on April 1, 2014 - 9:27am

"I’m on CellCept, prednisone, Mestinon and IVIG every three weeks," says 38-year-old Rachel Pegram. "Prednisone, which I have taken for more than 22 years now, has very rough side effects. It has caused weight gain, diabetes and glaucoma. I cannot say I have ever gone into remission without drugs, but I believe I have been in a drug-induced remission. I have spent a lot of time in hospitals for...

An MDA-supported research team has found in animal experiments that plasmapheresis can reduce the number of unwanted antibodies to gene therapy delivery vehicles

posted on December 6, 2013 - 2:45pm

A research group supported in part by MDA has found that a blood-filtering strategy known as plasmapheresis looks promising as a way to help overcome one type of unwanted immune response to gene transfer therapy. Gene transfer therapy is the addition of therapeutic genes to treat disease, and it is often administered via transport vehicles made from viruses.
Louis Chicoine at Nationwide Children'...

MDA-supported researchers have used genetic engineering to target renegade cells of the immune system in mice with a disease resembling myasthenia gravis

posted on October 25, 2012 - 10:47am

Researchers funded in part by MDA say a gene-based therapy designed to treat myasthenia gravis (MG) has shown promise in mice with an MG-like disease.
The research team was led by Dan Drachman, a longtime MDA research grantee at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who also co-directs the MDA neuromuscular disease clinic at that institution. Drachman, a professor of neurology, has a special...